Fireworks were illegal to use in Beijing until 3 years ago. Chinese new year/Lunar New Year's Spring festival goes for 15 days. the last day is the Lantern Festival. This is also that last day in which it is legal to use fireworks until the next new year so a huge fireworks filled night is expected. the Lantern Festival night was super disapointing in Beijing. I heard in other cities they actually have g-darn lantern festivals! Tried to go to chaoyang park for a huge lantern display but turns out there wasn't one again this year, then tried to go to another park and they said they we'rent turning on the lights tonight and come back tommorow. well tommorow isn't the lantern festival anymore you stupid jerks! ton's of chinese people were pissed, guy's were holding their girlfriends back and i was disapointed and for some reason not filled with murderous rage. on the other side of town some people were getting a little too excited though. their fireworks set the Mandarin Oriental hotel next to that crazy looking CCTV tower on fire!

like moths drawn to the flame the spectators came out

the officials released their statement saying that proffesional fireworks guys were hired by either cctv or the hotel, can't remember and that the officials said their setup looked dangerous and they recommended taht they don't set off the fireworks but they did anyway and this fire happened. that sounds like a pretty convenient cover story for "chinese people go totally ape-sh!t and set everything on fire with their non stop barrage of fireworks for the last 15 days".

our fireworks. it might look cool here but rest assured that they were totally not. 4 little fairy farts came out of our 3 sticks and it was over in 6 seconds. we also had two things that had fireworks mounted on cars. very not cool. i could tell when i gave these kids the other one after i saw how lame the first one was that they were reluctantly taking it. it looked like a little firecracker car that backfired and sputtered out pathetically.

the front of the dimsum place near yonghegong.

my talking and whining foot

another wish tree at the APM mall or watever on wangfujing

they have these astro boy stores in china that are an actual brand and the stores are filled with a whole astroboy fashionline and merchandise.

ate at this Yunnan restaurant taht was so expensive at the mall and the only redeeming quality was the decor was pretty cool with all the 90 degree black bars and stuff. actually that doesn't redeem it. do not go there

went to the store with my roomate. first time going with a real live chinese person! anyway i didnt document anything and forgot everything. thought the design of these bottles was cool though.

took a bike ride to get the package my old roomate from astoria sent me from korea. the chinese EMS website is totally amateur and doesnt even have an address so you have to call and be on hold or try to guess which i did and eventually found it. there are a lot of these housing unit things north of my house

and some smoke stacks. guess its far enough away from the city center for them to have factoriesthis reminds me of the pojangmachas in korea where you eat street food in a covered tent like thing. i don't think i've seen too many of these outfits here in Beijing.

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More about me

I was on an adventure around the world that ended up being 5 years. I lived 1.5 yrs in Beijing from June '08, 1.5 yrs in Tokyo from Sept '09, Barcelona for 3 months in summer '11, 5 months in London from August '11, NYC for 3 months, 2 month Asia trip, NYC for summer 2012, 1 year in Paris until Fall '13 (I got an artist's visa!), and now live in back in NYC. I am a freelance Illustrator working for magazines, newspapers, advertising, publishing, etc...www.JasonRaish.com